Philanthropist Chuck Feeney has given away his entire fortune, with a good chunk going to Queensland

Chuck Feeney, the humble philanthropist who bankrolled many of Peter Beattie’s Smart State initiatives, has achieved his life goal.

GIVING IT ALL AWAY

YOU might call him the $10 billion man.

Chuck Feeney, the humble philanthropist who bankrolled many of Peter Beattie’s Smart State initiatives, has achieved his goal of giving away his entire fortune before he dies.

The Irish-American entrepreneur, who made his money from duty-free shopping centres, turns 85 on Saturday and has made his final pledges to be paid this year.

Feeney put 99.9 per cent of his wealth into his Atlantic Philanthropies foundation and gifted to projects around the world.

He did that anonymously for many years until a court case by a former partner forced him to go public.

More than $500 million of his money found its way to Australia, with at least $270 million going to biomedical projects in Queensland.

“Any way you look at it, you are going to give it all away at some point, so I prefer giving while living,
as you have greater influence, and a lot more fun!’’ he once said.

REMEMBERING PRINCE

FIRST Bowie and now Prince. It’s been a tough year for music legends.

The passing of the brilliant but mercurial Purple One saddened your diarist, who first saw him booed off a stage in 1981 opening for The Rolling Stones.

News that the electrifying pop icon had planned a stadium tour across Australia next year only made the loss harder to accept.

Brisbane stadiums boss Harvey Lister revealed yesterday that Prince was the very rare artist who managed himself and acted as his own agent.

“No act in history has ever operated like that,” Lister said. “He would make a decision to play less than six weeks out from a tour. It was if he woke up one morning and thinks ‘I’ll do Australia’.’’

In addition to impetuous, the rock star could be frustrating too.

Lister revealed how he had a special 2000-seat tent erected many years ago so Prince could easily play after shows but the tour was cancelled at the last minute.

The costly contraption has now been dispatched to South Africa.

ADANI MISFIRE

WHAT the heck were they thinking over in the Adani bunker?

The Indian mining giant copped a torrent of abuse on its Facebook page after mentioning that yesterday was World Earth Day.

“It’s time to reflect and do our bit. What are some of the things you do for the environment?’’ the company asked in a warm ‘n’ fuzzy post.

That prompted an outpouring of coughing and spluttering outrage from critics who are not too keen on the company’s
$21 billion Carmichael mega-mine going ahead in Queensland.

“Doing my best to prevent your awful company from raping our precious earth,’’ one responded.

“What do you do Adani? The best thing you can do for the earth is stay out of Australia,’’ another said.

WAR OF WORDS

A WAR of words has erupted between Brisbane-based miner Moreton Resources and LNP frontbencher Deb Frecklington.

The member for Nanango is leading the charge against Moreton’s plans to build a $250 million open-cut coal mine near Kingaroy.

She alleges the mine would lie just 2km from
the town hall and consume the airport but the company said yesterday that wasn’t the case.

“The mine would in fact be approximately 6km from the GPO, with the pit operations a further 1km, and would not consume the local airport,’’ a Moreton spinner said.

But Frecklington stood her ground and refused to back down.

“There are publicly available maps … so these really can’t be disputed,’’ she said. “The feedback I have been receiving is that this proposal is not what my community wants.”